Stressed Out
by thespace-dragon
Summary: Finals are here and everyone is stressing out! Natsu and Lucy are starting to feel the impending doom, well Lucy is at least, how will they handle it? Fluff, Oneshot, some language.
**Update: I noticed some spelling and grammar issues, so those have all been fixed. Enjoy!**

 **Hey, guys! I'm back again! This one isn't quite as fluffy as the last one but I hope you'll still enjoy it!**

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Finals week.

The hell week of every college semester.

Lucy was beyond stressed. So stressed that she didn't even care that she went around campus in only a t-shirt and sweats most of the week. When you had a final every day, who had the time to take care of their appearance?

Currently, she was walking her way across Magnolia, sunglasses covering her sleep deprived eyes, her hair up in a messy bun, and a venti Starbucks coffee with two extra shots of espresso.

Yeah, finals were killer.

Thankfully classes weren't a thing during finals week or else Lucy was sure that she would die from over-working herself. Lucy sighed to herself. It was only Sunday and she was ready to cry from all of the stress. She was forcing herself to go to the library because if she tried to study in her dorm room, she would find herself on social media rather than studying.

The library was neutral ground, every student heading there to force themselves to review their materials for class and well… do anything they need to do to pass their classes. Legally.

Lucy made her way into the library and was simply lucky to find someone leaving and was able to nab a table for herself. Thank god she didn't have to share with anyone. Setting her bag on the chair next to her and raising her sunglasses to rest on the top of her head. She pulled out her laptop and her multitude of binders and notebooks and set to work. Music plugged in and blasting in her ears, Lucy felt the most productive she had since her last round of exams. Which was last semester.

Hours flew by and Lucy was able to finally take a break. She had shown up to the library fairly early in the morning, but considering there was a crowd of people already there, she still felt a little behind the curve. Oh, what she would give to be able to go back to freshman year. Easy classes, way less stress, and the optimistic view of college life. Now as a junior, the classes were three times as hard, the stress levels were through the roof, and let's just say Lucy's view of the world developed into a more realistic point of view. She had Natsu to be the optimist for her.

Speaking of Natsu. She was supposed to be meeting for lunch as 1:30 pm. It was almost a quarter till two. Where the hell was he?

Lucy was just about to take out her phone to call him when food was dropped in front of her and the pink haired man that she had been friends with for years now sat across from her, his shit-eating grin in place as always.

"Heya, Luce!" he greeted with a little salute.

Lucy rolled her eyes and took out her earbuds, pausing her music. "Hey, Natsu." She gestured to the bag in front of her. "Is this the reason why you were late?" she asked, a small smile on her face.

His mouth already full with his own food, when he nodded and swallowed. "Yeah, I figured ya would be 'ere studyin' still so I thought bringing ya food would help ya out a li'l," he said.

Lucy giggled lightly. Leave it to him be so considerate. "Thanks, Natsu."

She pulled out her food. He had gotten her a salad with a light Italian dressing. After almost seven years or knowing each other, Natsu and Lucy knew each other so well, it was practically a science. He enjoyed the spicy foods, she would prefer a salad. Natsu had his ever-present scarf, and Lucy would have her collectible zodiac keys on her key ring with her all the time. He would poke his tongue out while he concentrated on his homework, she would scrunch her eyebrows together and frown. The list could go on forever with them.

They ate their lunch in silence, respecting the rules of the library. Natsu scarfed his food down and Lucy would nibble away at hers while she continued to study. Her friend always had an easy time with school, most things coming to him with little effort, but for Lucy, it was another story. She was constantly challenging herself to better her writing to appease her teachers. New prompts forcing her to push the envelope but was conservative enough to be tasteful.

Such prompts always challenged her views and morals, but she enjoyed it, despite how frustrating it could be. If you were asking her personally, she would tell you that she was more interested in creative writing, but to get an English degree at Magnolia University, you had to take a ton of classes that had you writing about ethics, politics, religion, the whole shebang.

Lucy frowned and puffed out her cheeks at her current essay. It didn't feel right and she swore that she was missing the point of the prompt, but she couldn't think of a new way to answer it and still be able to back up her claim with sources.

Scratching her head in frustration, she turned to Natsu. "Read this for me." She handed the prompt over to him, along with her response.

Natsu scanned through what she wrote. "Okay, what's wrong with it?" he asked.

"Everything!" Lucy whispered heatedly to keep herself from yelling in frustration. "Nothing feels right and it –it… ugh! I don't even know how to describe it! It's terrible. I'm doing it over again. Sorry, you had to read that." What was she thinking? Natsu was a biochemistry major and was one of the last people she should be taking this kind of problem to. Where was Levy when she needed her?

Lucy snatched the paper back and crumpled it up. Tearing out a new sheet from her notebook, she began to rewrite her answer.

Again, she found it to be inadequate and scrapped it.

She did that three more times before Natsu shut her computer and grabbed her notebook from her.

"Hey! What the hell was that for?" Lucy squeaked.

"Pack up. You're done studying for the day." Natsu said standing up and packing away her things.

"B-but I need to study!"

Natsu rolled his eyes at her. "No, you don't. You have been at this all day, Luce. Time for a break. You're comin' with me to my apartment."

Her stuff was all packed and before she was really able to comprehend what was going on, Natsu was dragging her out of the library and into the parking lot.

"N-Natsu! I really need to study! You can't just kidnap me like this!" Lucy yelled as soon as they were outside.

Natsu ignored her and continued to pull her towards his small SUV. Lucy groaned and let Natsu lead her. There was no point in arguing with him now, as soon as he started to ignore her, that was the end. He made up his mind and there was nothing she could do to change it.

Natsu put her stuff in the car and led her around to the passenger side, opening the door for her. Lucy rolled her eyes but got in anyways. The fact that he refused to let go of her hand the whole time made her think that he believed she would run away to go study again. She probably would too.

He climbed into the driver's seat and started the car, pulling out of the parking lot as fast as he could. Lucy couldn't stop herself from giggling a little bit as they made their way to his apartment.

Natsu glanced at her. "What're ya laughin' at, Luce?"

"Oh, you," she continued to giggle. "Always looking out for me, ever since freshman year of high school."

Natsu gave her a lopsided grin. "Well, if I didn't, who would?"

Lucy felt her heart flutter at his words. Over the years, he's been saying more and more things like that and every time they made her heart flutter, just like now. It's hard not to fall for your best friend when they end up being perfect for you. Yep, Lucy has fallen into the 'I've fallen for my best friend' trope. It didn't help that Lucy's friends continually teased her about not being in a relationship with him either, always bringing up the 'you two have known each other for years' line.

Lucy only smiled and rolled her eyes at Natsu. "What do you have planned for us when we get back to your apartment?"

Natsu shrugged as he focused on the road. "Dunno. Anything to keep your mind off of your finals for a little while at least."

Lucy hummed and let the conversation die off, both of them falling into a comfortable silence as they drove the few minutes it took to get to Natsu's apartment. Natsu didn't live that far off of campus, and with the internships he had been able to snag over the summers, he was able to afford one. Lucy was stuck in the dorms and trying to pay her own way through college comparatively.

Once they got there, Natsu grabbed her stuff as she got out of his car. Climbing three flights of stairs, they were finally inside of his apartment. Thankfully it was still clean from the last time Lucy was over. She had walked into a pigsty the last time and instead of hanging out, Lucy forced him to help her clean the place up. She was not going to keep coming over to his place if he kept it like that.

They were greeted by Happy, Natsu's Russian Blue cat. Lucy cooed and picked him up, snuggling him up to her face. Happy had been with Natsu before Lucy had even met him and the little guy was starting to show his age, no longer jumping up for Lucy to catch. He simply lazed around all the time. The only time she saw him act like the kitten he used to be was whenever a fish was present.

Natsu left her bag at the dining room table and walked into the living room, starting up his PS3 and breaking out the video games. Lucy followed after him and he tossed her a controller. She fumbled with it because Happy was still in her arms.

"Come on, we're gonna play this," he said, holding up a game. Halo 4. Oh boy.

"U-uh, y-you know I'm not very good a-at those games…" Lucy stuttered.

Natsu rolled his eye and put the disk in anyways. "All the more fun, then!" he grinned as he plopped himself down on the couch.

Lucy sighed and sat down next to him. This was not going to end well for her…

* * *

"Dammit, Luce!" Natsu yelled as he died again.

"What? What did I do?"

"You shot _me_ instead of the _other guys_!" he moaned exasperated. They had been at this game for hours now, playing the campaign with no end in sight. Lucy kept accidently shooting Natsu and then dying herself shortly afterward because Natsu wasn't able to respawn fast enough.

"I'm sorry! I told you I wasn't good at these games!" Lucy huffed at him. It was his fault for making her play.

"Fine." He got up off of the couch and exited the game, not even bothering to save their lame progress. He exchanged it for another game. "We'll play this one."

Lego: Indiana Jones appeared on the screen and Lucy breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful that it wasn't Call of Duty or something else along those lines.

"Can you play this one and not screw it up?" Natsu teased, giving her a smirk

Lucy laughed and nodded her head. "As long as you don't screw it up first!"

Well, about ten minutes into the game, Natsu in fact, screwed up the game. He locked her inside of a lava pit with a disappearing platform and every time she respawned on the platform, she would inadvertently die. Natsu cackled at her predicament, dropping the controller as he clutched his sides. Lucy puffed out her cheeks in frustration and gave up on the game.

Standing up, she made her way into the kitchen, looking for something to eat. They had played well into the night because of Halo and they had completely forgotten to feed themselves. Typical college students.

She opened the fridge to find nothing. The cabinets were just as empty as well. How the hell was Natsu feeding himself?

"Natsu? Do you have any food in this place?" she called out to him?

"Huh? Did I eat everything again?" he said from right behind her.

Lucy _eeped_ and spun around to face him. He was casually leaning on the counter watching her, arms crossed, an amused smile on his face.

Lucy gave him a deadpan stare. "Jerk."

Natsu scoffed and raised a hand to his heart. "Ouch, Luce. That hurts ya know," he whimpered sarcastically.

Lucy couldn't bring herself to care. She was way too hungry. It was close to 10:30 pm and the last thing she had to eat was at around two when Natsu brought her food.

"Natsu, we haven't eaten anything in forever. I'm hungry."

Natsu rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll order us some pizza. Sound good?"

Lucy nodded. "Just get me a pepperoni pizza, I don't want any of the extra spicy stuff you put on yours."

Natsu looked up from his phone through his bangs and raised a brow. "Ya sure? Pizza is better with that stuff."

"Says the person with the taste buds of steel."

He shrugged and turned back to his phone and put it to his ear. "You're loss," he said before he greeted the person on the other end.

Lucy left to go find and snuggle Happy. She found the cat lounging on the couch and scooped him up, scratching his chest as he purred up at her.

"I swear he likes you more than me," Natsu said from the kitchen doorway.

"It's because I show him love and affection instead of just filling him up with fish all the time."

"Pfffft, please. He loves me more for that!" Natsu walked over and tried to pet his own cat, but Happy swatted at his hands and leapt out of Lucy's arms, stalking away.

"Well, I guess he's fed up with both of us," Natsu observed.

Lucy pouted. "It was your fault," she muttered.

"What was that?" Natsu leaned over, cupping an ear to hear her better, a smirk playing on his face.

Lucy blushed a little at his proximity and puffed out her cheeks. "Your fault," she murmured, looking away from him.

"Huh?" he leaned closer, a full blown smirk on his face now. He was up to something.

Lucy edged away from him, creating space. "I'm not saying anything." She affirmed.

The way Natsu was looking at her was making her worried. He followed after her, the smirk spreading into a grin.

"C'mon, Luce…What did ya say about me?"

"Nothing!" she squeaked, jumping away from him.

"Uh-huh, right," he said, drawing out his last word before he jumped her, pinning her to the couch and tickling the daylights out of her.

Before she could even squeak his phone rang. Natsu pulled it out of his pocket, still keeping Lucy easily pinned to the couch despite how much she struggled.

"Hello?" he answered. "…Oh, ya here…? M'kay, I'll be right down, thanks!"

Natsu jumped off of her and ran out the door. Lucy sagged into the couch as she felt the air make its way into her lungs again. Natsu may be fit and everything but all that muscle mass was killer. Happy came back from wherever he was hiding and jumped up on her, settling down on her stomach, purring lightly. Lucy raised a hand and scratched the cat's ears as she waited for Natsu to come back with the food. It was well past 10:30 pm now, almost eleven, and Lucy just remembered she had a final tomorrow morning.

She groaned and tossed an arm over her head. She wasted most of the day here, goofing around with Natsu when she could have been studying. Why did she let him drag her away?

Natsu burst through the door, pizza in hand and one slice hanging from his mouth already. Setting it down on the dining room table, she heard him finish his slice noisily as he walked into the living room. Lucy didn't move when he stopped next to her, her arm still draped over her face and her other hand buried in Happy's fur.

"Luce? You okay?"

"…No…" she muttered.

"Come on, we can talk about it over pizza." He picked her and Happy up and walked into the dining room.

"Natsuuuu…" Lucy whined along the way, "Put me down!"

"Ya didn't look like you were going anywhere anytime soon, so to speed up the process, I'm takin' ya with me," He reasoned.

Lucy pouted in his arms, secretly enjoying the feeling of being carried around by him. He deposited her in a chair, Happy _mrowing_ slightly annoyed and wandered off again. Natsu served her two slices of her pizza and sat down across from her with his whole pizza. They ate for the most part in silence. Natsu's eating habits were always noisy and messy. How Lucy stomached it was a question she asked herself every time she ate with Natsu. And that was often. She asked herself that a lot.

Lucy didn't talk much, and nibbled at her slices, filled to the brim with anxiety about her final tomorrow.

"Luce."

"Hmmm?" she hummed, not looking up.

"You gonna eat anymore?"

Lucy shook her head and pushed her plate away from her. Natsu gave her a concerned look but accepted her food anyways. She sat there staring at the table, locked in despair. She wasted a whole day of studying. A whole day. She would have felt a lot better if she had been able to at least finish one thing today, but Natsu whisked her away from that plan when she started to fret about her answer to a prompt. Now here she was, stressing over the fact that her final was tomorrow and she had almost nothing prepared for it.

She groaned and let her head fall onto the table.

"Lucy?"

"What."

"You okay?"

Lucy rolled her head to one side before she answered. "Didn't I already answer that? I said no."

"Oh…" Natsu paused. "Well, do ya wanna just stay the night then?"

Lucy blushed at the connotation of his words. Stay the night? Of the years she had known him, he never exactly asked her if she could stay the night. He was always sneaking into her dorm room. Thank god she had a single room and didn't share with anyone, or else things would have been awkward for everyone.

Lucy picked her head up off of the table and looked at the clock on the microwave. It was half-past eleven now. It wasn't terribly late. She could get back to her dorm before midnight if she left now.

"W-well, um, I would l-love to, N-Natsu, but I have a-a final in the morning." She managed to say. She got and started to gather her things in a hurry.

Natsu stood up and stopped her busy hands, leaning across the table. "Lucy, you're still stressing out about a final that you have been studyin' for the past month or so. You need to stop worryin'." He said firmly and kindly at the same time.

Lucy looked up at him, eyes wide. "But, but…my final…"

"You'll do fine. Just believe in yourself."

Lucy swore she got this speech from him every semester when she started to freak out about her finals. And she was thankful for it. Natsu was always the one to bring her back down to earth whenever she started to overreact about something, exams most of the time.

"O-okay…" she said quietly.

Natsu smiled his signature smile and Lucy found herself smiling a little bit back.

"Good. Now let's go watch a movie!" He took her hand and led her around the table and back into the living room, but he stopped just before he got to the couch.

"Hey… I know it's like, almost midnight and all, and ya got finals and stuff tomorrow, but do you wanna make a pillow fort and watch How to Train Your Dragon in it?" He asked, a child-like gleam in his eyes.

Lucy laughed. "Sure!"

The next half hour was spent bickering and throwing pillows at each other, scrambling for blankets, and possibly two tickle fights, the pillow fort was done. Lucy's laptop was set up at one end since Natsu uses a desktop for most of his work now, and was loading the movie.

They were inside, multiple blankets and pillows surrounding them, creating some sort of nest while they made themselves comfy in the living room. As soon as Lucy was in a prime position to watch the movie and still be able to reach the keyboard. Natsu lounged next to her on his side, facing her.

She glanced at him as she pressed play on the movie and settled back again. He was looking at her differently. Lucy ignored it for the time being. There was no way she was going to let him distract her from How to Train Your Dragon.

But when he scooted closer, his chest pressing against her shoulder, and he threw his leg over hers and pulled her closer, she suddenly found that a lot harder to do. His head fell onto his hand, pink hair falling into his face a little, still staring at her with his dark eyes.

"U-uh, N-Natsu?" she stammered.

"Hmm?" he hummed.

Lucy blushed. "W-What are you, you doing?"

That seemed to get him to snap out of it a little bit before his eyes locked with hers, the movie still playing in the background.

"Oh, nothin' really," he purred, leaning in closer to her.

Lucy's blush deepened, spreading across her cheeks. Her best friend, the man she had a crush on, just purred at her! Purred! What the heck was going on?

"N-Nat-Natsu?"

He leaned in as far as to have their noses touch, and Lucy's breath caught in her throat. Was he going to kiss her?

"Yes, Lucy?"

She couldn't speak, he was too close. His eyes were captivating, and she could smell his cologne. She closed her eyes and waited for him to make a move.

Suddenly he backed off but kept his body right next to hers. "Weirdo, you're missing the movie, ya know."

What?

Lucy's eyes snapped open to find her friend watching the movie, looking completely innocent as he smiled at her.

Lucy gaped at him like a fish, looking from him to the movie and back again. When he offered no explanation for what just happened, she let her head fall onto the pillow in front of her, face planting it.

This was going to be a long week if he was going to keep stealing her away like some dragon stealing a princess because she stressed about her finals and this was the result she was going to get every time. Her heart was going a mile a minute from on simple nose touch for god's sake!

"Hey, Luce?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah?"

"What time is your exam tomorrow? Well…today really?"

Lucy looked up from the pillow and watched the movie for a moment before she answered. "It's at ten."

"Okay, we'll go to bed once we finish the movie then! You need your sleep." He ruffled her hair and planted a light kiss on the top of her head before he settled back for the movie.

Yup, this was going to be a long week.

* * *

 **Hey, you made it to the end! Wooo! So did you like it? I mean, hell it was almost 4k!**

 **Let me know what you think in a review!**

 **Until next time,**

 **Mogey**


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